Is the Ramsey number R(5,5) equal to 43?
How many people must be at a party before five of them are all mutual friends or all mutual strangers? Known to be between 43 and 46.
▸Motivation
R(4,4) = 18 has been known since 1955. R(5,5) is not known, and the search space is far beyond exhaustive checking.
Erdős' remark is the standard framing: if aliens demanded R(5,5) we should marshal all our computers to find it, but if they demanded R(6,6) we should attack them instead. The lower bound 43 has stood since 1989; the upper bound was reduced to 46 in 2024.
This problem is here partly to be honest about limits: a proof would be an enormous computation, and a computation is exactly what a kernel-checked corpus is well suited to record.
Lower bound Exoo 1989; upper bound 46 by Angeltveit and McKay 2024.
▸Lean API
import Conjectura.Defs.Mathematics.Combinatorics.GraphTheory.RamseyArrow
namespace Conjectura.GT002
/-- Is `R(5,5) = 43`? Erdős' remark that an alien civilisation demanding `R(6,6)`
should be fought rather than answered gives the flavour: the values are bounded but
essentially uncomputable, and this is the smallest unknown diagonal case. -/
def goal : Prop :=
Conjectura.GraphTheory.ArrowsTo 43 5 5 ∧ ¬ Conjectura.GraphTheory.ArrowsTo 42 5 5
end Conjectura.GT002▸Definition3
- Ramsey arrowConjectura.GraphTheory.ArrowsTo
The Ramsey arrow
n → (s, t): every two-colouring of the edges of the complete graph onnvertices contains either ans-set with all edges the first colour or at-set with all edges the second. Ramsey's theorem says such annalways exists; the least one is the Ramsey number, and almost none are known.def ArrowsTo (n s t : ℕ) : Prop := ∀ c : Fin n → Fin n → Bool, (∀ x y, c x y = c y x) → (∃ S : Finset (Fin n), S.card = s ∧ ∀ x ∈ S, ∀ y ∈ S, x ≠ y → c x y = true) ∨ (∃ T : Finset (Fin n), T.card = t ∧ ∀ x ∈ T, ∀ y ∈ T, x ≠ y → c x y = false)- FinsetFinset
structure
- cardS.card
theorem
▸Related work1
- R(5,5) ≤ 46Vigleik Angeltveit, Brendan McKay · 2024
The current upper bound, by extensive computation.
▸For your AI
I am proving a theorem in Lean 4 and submitting it to Conjectura.
## Problem GT002 — Is the Ramsey number R(5,5) equal to 43?
How many people must be at a party before five of them are all mutual friends or all mutual strangers? Known to be between 43 and 46.
## Environment (fixed — do not assume anything newer)
- Lean toolchain: `leanprover/lean4:v4.33.0-rc1`
- Mathlib: `v4.33.0-rc1`
If a lemma you want does not exist in that Mathlib, prove it inline instead of
importing something newer.
## The exact statement I must prove
```lean
theorem solution : ArrowsTo 43 5 5 ∧ ¬ ArrowsTo 42 5 5 := by
sorry
```
## The file I submit
```lean
import Conjectura.Problems.GT002.Statement
namespace Submission
theorem solution : Conjectura.GT002.goal := by
sorry
end Submission
```
## The Lean definitions of every term in this problem
These are the actual definitions your proof will be checked against. Do not
substitute your own version of any of them.
### Ramsey arrow
The Ramsey arrow `n → (s, t)`: every two-colouring of the edges of the complete graph on `n` vertices contains either an `s`-set with all edges the first colour or a `t`-set with all edges the second. Ramsey's theorem says such an `n` always exists; the least one is the Ramsey number, and almost none are known.
```lean
Conjectura.GraphTheory.ArrowsTo
-- unfolds to:
def ArrowsTo (n s t : ℕ) : Prop :=
∀ c : Fin n → Fin n → Bool, (∀ x y, c x y = c y x) →
(∃ S : Finset (Fin n), S.card = s ∧ ∀ x ∈ S, ∀ y ∈ S, x ≠ y → c x y = true) ∨
(∃ T : Finset (Fin n), T.card = t ∧ ∀ x ∈ T, ∀ y ∈ T, x ≠ y → c x y = false)
```
Defined in this corpus.
### Finset
structure
```lean
Finset
```
Defined in Mathlib.
### card
theorem
```lean
S.card
```
Defined in Mathlib.
## Rules — submissions violating these are rejected automatically
1. **Do not change the name or type of `solution`.** It must satisfy the
statement above exactly.
2. **Do not redefine or shadow anything from the problem's Statement module.**
Declaring your own `goal`, or redefining a name it depends on, produces a
proof of a *different* statement and is rejected. This is the single most
common rejection.
3. **No `sorry`** anywhere, including in helper lemmas. It surfaces as the
axiom `sorryAx` and is detected transitively through imports.
4. **No `native_decide`** — it surfaces as `Lean.ofReduceBool` and is not
accepted, because it trusts compiled code rather than the kernel.
5. Only these axioms are permitted: `propext`, `Classical.choice`,
`Quot.sound`.
6. Follow Mathlib style: hypotheses left of the colon, explicit types,
`snake_case` theorem names, `UpperCamelCase` types.
## What I want from you
Here is my argument in informal mathematics:
> [PASTE YOUR PROOF SKETCH HERE]
Turn it into Lean 4 that compiles under the environment above and satisfies the
statement exactly. Where you are unsure a lemma exists in this Mathlib version,
say so explicitly rather than guessing a name.Submissions are not open yet
Conjectura is in beta. You can read every statement, every definition and the Lean behind them, and download the exact files the checker uses — but proofs are not being accepted yet.
The reason is a deliberate order of operations. Accepting a proof means running a stranger’s code and standing behind a verdict, and no statement here yet carries a researcher’s name. A machine-checked answer to a question nobody has vouched for is worth very little, so the vouching comes first.
The English write-ups are also switched off during the beta. Nothing on this page is generated by a model.
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